On a cold winter’s afternoon on Thursday 1st March 2018, when most of the South East of England was engulfed with snow which even impacted the City of London and severely affected public transport, a stalwart group of Glovers assembled in the visitor centre of the London Mithraeum. We were here to visit the newly opened exhibits and reconstructed Roman Temple of Mithras.
The Temple was first discovered in the 1950’s when excavations were taking place to rebuild buildings which had been demolished by WW2 bombing raids on the City of London. To make way for the new building which was to become Bucklersbury House, the Temple was excavated, stored and rebuilt in a new location but using the original stones where it was put on public display. In 2010, When Bucklersbury House was demolished to make way for a new building many new Roman artefacts were discovered.
We were introduced to our guide Sophie Jackson and two colleagues from the Museum of London who firstly gave a vivid description of many of the Roman artefacts in the new display case. Sophie gave an interesting insight as to why the artefacts were so well preserved including leather shoes and part of a wooden door and a wooden paddle as well as many metal objects. She also told us about some well-preserved wooden tablets which in Roman times would have been covered with wax and used as writing tablets. She explained that due to the close proximity of the site to the Wallbrook River, much of the oxygen was taken from the surrounding earthworks by the river and it is oxygen which causes the decay of wood and leather and tarnishes and rusts metal objects. We then descended to the Temple level and entered this semi darkened area of the Mithras Temple. We were treated to a sound and lighting experience which was both dramatic and eerie and explained some background to the Roman worshipers of the temple in Roman times in London.
Ascending back to street level we proceeded along Cornhill to the Counting House pub/restaurant. Glovers were shown to one of several private dining areas where we had an enjoyable two course dinner with good choices to suit all tastes. This was followed by coffee in the convivial atmosphere.. Towards the end of the evening the Master thanked our tour guides who were able to join us for dinner and particularly to thank Lieselotte Burdorf-Cook who organised the event in an excellent manner.
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